Kartik stars with five scalps for Somerset in county

Out of favour veteran leg-spinner Murali Kartik continued his sparkling form in the county circuit, picking up five wickets for Somerset against Kent.

Written by Press Trust of India

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London:

Out of favour veteran leg-spinner Murali Kartik continued his sparkling form in the county circuit, picking up five wickets for Somerset against Kent on the second day of their LV County Championship match here.

Somerset bowled out the visitors for 172, before extending their lead to 161 at stumps with eight wickets in hand.

The home side were reeling after day one when four wickets from Darren Stevens reduced them to 122 for seven, but stubborn tail-end batting enabled them to reach 205.

Kartik then took centrestage with his five wickets forcing Kent to concede a first innings lead. Somerest made hay with the bat in the evening session to leave Martin van Jaarsveld's side with a mountain to climb.

Kartik also contributed with the bat as well and along with Charl Willoughby took the home side through to a batting bonus point but James Tredwell struck in his first over to remove Kartik for 15. But Somerset had scrambled up to 205 all-out by then.

Later, Kartik wrecked havoc with the ball running through the Kent line-up with ease and a poor day for the visitors got worse in the final session as the home side cruised to 128 for two at close.